2001.02.02
www.ventrella.com
is a site by Jeffrey Ventrella. I took a class from him
in Artificial Life
(simulating life on a computer, usually by starting with simple rules and hoping to see some complex, lifelike behavior)
at Tufts' innovative Experimental College. The site has a variety of artsy little projects. One of the coolest things there is a program for Windows called Gene Pool. Little multisegmented critters, like the two fellas shown here, swim and evolve. Each is defined my a few numbers, the joints you can see, plus a few sine wave like rules that control how their 'muscles' push against the water they swim in. The eat and reproduce, and eventually evolve into very efficient swimmers. You can select what the population generally finds attractive in a mate, and changing that variable lets you different features prominent in the evolutionary mix. Very cool stuff.
Followup
Heh, you know what? If yesterday's wrinkle thing really became an issue, I could always get a facelift! I don't think I ever would, but it's nice when there's a solution to a 'big life problem' waiting in the wings, even if you'd never want to use it...
Ahh, cleared out my inbox in Pine. That always makes life feel a little less chaotic.